iPhone 6 Release Date, Features, Specs And Expected Price

Let’s go ahead and see what are the latest rumors regarding the iPhone 6 release date, its specs and features. Apple doesn’t seem to be in the best of situations right now when it comes to smartphones, as for the moment it does not have the fastest processor nor the highest-resolution screen for its phones. If you compare the iPhone 5 with HTC One, Sony Xperia Z and Samsung Galaxy S4, most buyers will come to the conclusion that the iPhone might be a bit behind at the moment and that it would be best to reconsider the Android platform.

And what we mean to say is not that Apple has been sitting idly by while all this was going on, as it has been working quite diligently on new hardware and software in order to regain the position it once had on the market. The next smartphone it will release will be the iPhone 5S, an upgraded version of the current iPhone 5. And after that release we will be able to see the new iPhone 6.

You can see below a detailed list of news on the iPhone 6, although many of its features are very much alike with those of the iPhone 5S. It could even be considered an alternative for iPhone to simply let go of the iPhone 5S and move straight ahead with the iPhone 6. But regardless of the name it will take, the new handset that will be released will have to be packing some serious top-hand technology in order to make the product desirable on the market again.

iPhone 6 Release Date

In the first month of the year, things were still a bit unclear about the release date and we knew very little about the smartphone. So, a bunch of rumored release dates from back then have been obviously wrong. And even now as we are approaching autumn it is still very hard to pin down an exact date for the release. But with the help of a few pointers we might be able to make out a possible date.

First off, if Apple continues his regular v, than that would mean that the iPhone 5S will follow the release of iPhone 5 pretty soon. Apple usually releases a new generation of phone in one year, and in the following it releases an upgraded version of that phone, but keeping the case and the design.

So to keep things simple we need to first make out when the iPhone 5S will be released. According to the majority of rumors, an autumn release is most likely. Another reason for an autumn release is also the call to investors Tim Cook has made in which he pointed out the exact same thing. In the statement he gave he has said that their teams are working hard on the hardware, software and services in order to introduce them this fall and in the following year.

What we know for sure is that the iOS 7 will be released in autumn, so it is expected that the iPhone 5S, iPad 5 and iPad Mini 2 will be released in the same period. The CFO for Apple also said in a more recent earnings call that they will be having a very busy fall. He concluded by saying he will get into more detail on that subject in October. So, our best guess so far would be that the iPhone 5S will be releases at the end of September or early October. Thus, the iPhone 6 si likely to follow in 2014.

Usually Apple releases a new product one year after it released the last one. But there are many rumors out there that say that this time, it won’t take so long. According to the wide spread rumors, the iPhone 6 will have a larger display, enabling Apple to sell both the iPhone 5S and the new iPhone 6 at the same time. So this might mean that Apple is now learning something from Samsung and the strategy they used with the release of the Galaxy S4 and release o the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini quite shortly after.

iPhone 6 Screen

Apple is quite famous for its top quality screens so what everyone wants to know is what’s going to be new in this area for the American corporation. As the iPhone 6 will be quite similar to the iPhone 5S then we can assume it will have the same screen size and resolution as the iPhone 5.

But it seems that its competitors at aiming at a different public, the one who rather enjoys big screen phones. Samsung, Sony and HTC have opted for wider screens in Full HD mode. And we all know it was never Apple’s intention to come up with the same device as its competitors, but with something that will set a trend of its own. But there has been large demand for big screens and you can’t simply ignore what is important to the public just so you don’t follow the trends. So odds are that the iPhone 6 will have a larger display. But the screen will need to be Retina, which uses a technology that allows you, at normal viewing distance to not see every individual pixel.

The majority of rumors we were able to gather up said that the iPhone 6 will have a 4.8 inch screen. That is quite similar to Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One, so we’re not too sure this will be its exact choice. But given that it will chose a similar option, this would mean that it could move to Full HD resolution or even more if it wants to.

But Apple has not made large screen smartphones before so this might be considered good change for the company and also keeping up with tough competition. The iPhone 5S can thus be kept as a smaller alternative and make its offers more attractive for buyers.

But the management has previously made a statement that seems to deny these speculations. Tim Cook has been noted to say that from his own perspective the iPhone 5 has the best display available on the market at the moment and that has always been a goal for the company, to create the very best displays for their customers.

In addition to this, he said that he was aware that some customers value large screen smartphones, but that there are still others who consider resolution, quality, white balance, brightness, reflectivity, screen longevity, power consumption, portability and compatibility with applications more important which is what they prize more also. He added that even if their fierce competitors have opted for change in order to be able to ship larger displays they would not opt for the same thing while this is happening.

So what Tim Cook is actually saying about Apple is that the company won’t agree to ship an iPhone with a larger screen until it will be able to smooth out all the trade-offs. So what it could do instead would be to make a thinner screen thus making the phones lighter. This would be a plus, nonetheless.

But Apple is still considering screen technology and the Sharp IGZO (Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide) screen seems to be the most suitable variant. The technology was demonstrated at the Consumer Electronics Show 2013 and it showed how with its help screens can use less energy and also be considerably thinner.

Apple seems to be quite tight with Sharp and that is how the rumors started in the first place regarding the new screen for the iPhone 6. In related news Sharp is also said to be currently making a super-sensitive touchscreen that you can write on with a pencil and work on with gloves on your hands. It is said it has eight times the sensitivity of existing technology, that is obviously scratch resistant, thinner than any existing model in the world and it can walk on water. We’re just kidding about the last one. But the others are quite true. It does sound like a technology that Apple would be dying to get their hands on.

Gaze Detection

We all know what a bigger screen means. Apart from the obvious benefits comes the downsides which almost always have something to do with the battery life. And big screens, as you may know, take up most of the battery life of a phone. For the iPhone 6 rumors say that Apple may be revisiting their gaze detection technology. This kind of technology is used by the phone in order to determine whether you are looking at the phone or not, and save energy this way. So this means that even if you were watching a video on your smartphone and you were to look away, the phone would pause your video and turn off the screen. Apple appears to have dug up how this new technology works and plans to use it as quickly as it can.

And it is understandable given that Samsung already beat it to that finish line when it released Samsung Galaxy S4 with the same gaze detection technology.

iOS 7

When the iOS was first released the public was incredibly enthusiastic about how original and easy to use it was. But right now, the operating system seems a bit out of dated if you were to compare it with what else is out there nowadays. Every new updated failed to bring the freshness it needed, and it almost seemed like they didn’t want to change the interface at all. The latest iOS 6 was vastly criticized, with particular concern for the Apple maps that replaced the Google Maps used on iOS 5, that seemed to be even worse than the predecessor.

But this time we will know exactly what to expect, so there’s no need to spread rumors anymore. The iOS 7 was released to the public at the Apple World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June this year. The system was designed by Jony Ive and it is the first time that we can say that it is completely innovative. The interface as well as the icons have changed to everyone’s surprise. They appear a lot more flatten now which is rather modern looking if you ask us.

The new features are also exciting. First off, you will have a Control Center which will let you access the common settings you want to chose, all with just swipe-up move to the menu. There is also a Today view in the Notification Center menu and the AirDrop. AirDrop may prove to be extremely successful as it lets users transfer files from one to another via Wi-Fi. Also the Camera features a new application with a whole bunch of filters than you will all be crazed about.

The iOS 7 will be out in autumn with the iPhone 5. But there are also rumors that an updated version of this operating system will be available for the iPhone6 as well. The updated version of the OS is rumored to feature a NFC chip that will enable a new Apple payment application.

iPhone 6 Camera

And now we get to the really exciting part. The new camera of the iPhone 6. We know now that people in general measure the performance of a smartphone by the quality of its camera. And Apple is quite behind on that, having not updated its camera in quite a while now. But it is said that it has put a lot of effort into that lately and that it the new camera should be a match for the current existing cameras on Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One.

The famous website MacRumours reported that the iPhone 5S will have a 12-megapixel sensor. Which would be quite impressive as the iPhone 5 only has 8-megapixels. So the iPhone 5 should have if not the same, than a better version of the sensor.

But making that sensor resolution bigger can cause noise problems. Surely Apple has thought of a strategy to solve the “more-light-per-pixel” problem. One of the solutions would be a lens with faster aperture. The current iPhone 5 has an f2.4 lens. For the new sensor to work a f2.2 or f2.0 lens should be sufficient.

The Storage

When it comes to storage space, the maximum capacity so far has been 64GB. We might be getting our hopes up, but we would really like to see the new iPhone 6 with 128GB of storage space. And since we already know that Apple has that capacity, given the recent launch of the iPad 4 that has the same capacity, that shouldn’t constitute a problem.

The new iPad model actually doubled the capacity of its predecessor that only had 64GB. The plan Apple had, was to increases the uses a tablet can have by increasing storage space. This way you would be able to have more room for large files that could be used in music production for example or photo or video editing.

This new model of the iPad 4 that we are talking about was featured as a separate new model with a different price. So the iPad 5 should have the same range of capacities of 16GB, 32GB, 64GB and respectively 128GB. So now that we know it has the capacity the question is whether it will be able to use it for iPhone or even or the iPad Mini. We surely hope that it can as this would be a great attribute to the series.

The NFC and Fingerprint Sensor

Near field communication (NFC) was actually omitted from the iPhone 5 to the disappointment of the fans. The NFC technology allows smartphones to establish radio communication with each other by simply bringing them together no more than a few inches away. This technology is now present in most Android phones so Apple should be stepping up its game now. As Apple wants the new Passbook Application that is used for storing tickets, coupons and store cards, this new technology would fit in well with its plans.

Also rumored is the integration of the fingerprint sensor that should be mostly used to secure transactions. So the payment application would make sense in this scenario and could be quite beneficial for Apple. The technology used in the contactless card readers is already on the market and quite popular in the UK.

When Apple announced the AirDrop feature in its iOS 7 it did seem to understand the demand for NFC. It even said that this technology is actually a lot easier than bumping phone together. Which is quite true for file transfers. But if you want to make a payment with your smartphone you will need the NFC.

iPhone 6 Processor

And this will probably have to be the most difficult part to make speculations about. The processor of the iPhone 6. What we know is what has been released with the iPhone 5, which is a dual-core Apple A6 processor. So judging by that we could say that the most expectable processor would have to be a quad-core Apple A7, using ARM Cortex A15-based cores.

Also rumored to surface with the iPhone 6 is ARM’s big.LITTLE architecture which allows a processor to save more battery through the help of its low-power cores. But this will only happen when not much CPU power is required, and it will switch to full-power cores when more intensive tasks are at hand. As Apple has always been the best in battery life, many users still gripping on to the brand solely because of this, it would be quite nice if they didn’t disappoint in this particular area. The ARM’s big.LITTLE architecture is something they are heavily promoting right now, so Apple should have taken the bait.

Some alleged photos of the iPhone 5S that leaked on the internet recently appeared to show the internal features of the smartphone. It was hard to tell what the processor was from the photos, but it is easy to assume that a A7 chip could be a the new deal which will be used in the iPhone5S. Making way for the same technology to be used in the iPhone6.

iPhone 6 Price

It is rather common for Apple to not make big price changes in smartphone between one release to the other. So if it will still hold on to that same guideline, a 32GB model should cost around £529, the 64GB model around £599 and the 128GB model roughly about £699. There seems no need to estimate the price for the 16GB model as there is little request for that and it will most likely be dropped.

Depending on how long the company is planning to sell just the iPhone 5S, without releasing the iPhone 6, we could be looking at some totally different prices for the new smartphone.